Multi-cat, a male cat behaves constantly attacks a female cat.

[whc216]

Hello!

I currently have three cats, which one is mine (2 years old female) and I am taking care of two others (1 year and 5 years old male) for few month.

It's been two month already and everyone seems fine, but sometimes, one of the cats I am taking care of, behaves really weird, that I am very frustrated on that.

It's that 5 years old male cats randomly attacks my 2 years old female cat.

What I mean for randomly is that suddenly (nothing really happened at all), the male cat starts wagging his tail really big and fast, and all of his attention goes into my female cat. I tried multiple times to break the attention, but it does not really work. Anyway, it used to be the male cat approached super close to my cat, while my cats growled to back off, but he just meowed with wagging his tail big for few minutes, then he went away. Now, it got worse. He started to make a hunting posture, then tried to chase my cat. They ran few laps around my home, but for me, it looked like he tried to catch my cat really badly, while my cat ran for her own protection. I thought it was just a wild play, but now, it's even worse! He attacked my cat (I just witnessed it), using his teeth and claw that my cat got a huge scratch on back of her ear. While my cat was running away, she even pee because she was scared.

I don't know if I can call this as chase or wild play. When he plays with another 1 year old male cat, he does not do that. Basically, he goes very lazy that he does not care what the 1 year old cat does do him. But recently, I noticed that he (5 years old male cat) easily gets attention on my female cat, and about to behave the same thing. I am very frustrated about this. I don't know what's up with him, and why he does only to my cat. My cat generally is very shy that she does not do anything to other cats. All the cats are neutered and spayed, but the 5 years old male cat got neutered late after he became a daddy, so I don't know if there is any possibility on this?

Btw, this does not happen all the time. Sometime, they all sleep in the same place and don't really care each other at all. In very randomly time (I cannot find the situation of why), it triggered male cat to behave like that.

I currently live in somewhat a studio like apartment that it's hard for me to separate room. I currently use Feliway and also tried Bach, but it did not help me that much. Can anyone help me on why he behaves like that? Thanks,

 

[p3 and the king]

Feliway won't help.  It's for insecure and frightened cats.  He is the opposite of that.  Is he neutered?  If not, he may be sexually frustrated.  If so, then I have a boy like this, I call him Tyrion the Tyrant.  He believes he's an alpha male.  And to him that means the other cats are his play things.  He sees her as prey.  So I would separate them as much as possible.  Only bringing or letting him out when you are there and can monitor and make sure nothing bad happens. Keep interactions short.  At the very first sign of trouble, when he starts showing signs of going into hunting/play mode, remove him and put him back in seclusion or you can remove her and that takes care of it.

 

[whc216]

Yes, all of them are neutered and spayed. But that male cat got neutered pretty late so I don't know if he still remembers all that, and sexually frustrated or something.

The thing is that few years ago, he lived with 3 other cats (1 male and 2 female), and I know 2 female cats used to dominate all that he was one of the victim cat all the time. Currently, he does not really do anything like being aggressive to the 1 year old male cat. Usually, the kitten is the one randomly attacks him, and he usually lets it go or does not really crazily fights back. Both the owner, and I used to think of the kitten as the alpha cat, so I don't know. I also don't want to create him any jealous feeling so I pay more attention to him than others. As far as I can tell the difference between the 1 year old kitten and my cat is the gender difference (mine is female), and my cat is more shy than the kitten, which is very playful. Both my cat and the 5 years old cat (attacker) has same color of hair (solid black).

It just happened again this morning while I was sleeping. Because I have to come for the work, and very worried about the situation, I was able to separate them, but how long do I need to do this? I don't have a lot of rooms (studio-like) that it's not only hard for me to separate them, but for them, it's really small space that they kept meowing or scratching the door to get in or so. I really have no idea what's up but now, it started to happen more often than before. I am very frustrated Help!

Thanks,

 

[p3 and the king]

I understand you are frustrated.  You can try a reintroduction.  But it does a lot of work, dedication and time.  Keep them separated for about a week or more.  And then slowly reintroduce them by only letting them see each other from a distance and then closer and closer.  Only as close as your kitty feels safe.  The key is to build up the submissive and preylike ones confidence again.  How long do you have him?  I would say this is just his personality.  There aren't any quick fixes here sadly.  The reintroduction may not help.  But for tips and to see how it is done, check out Jackson Galaxy's videos on youtube featuring cat reintroductions.